Seat back structure



y 1965 w. F. RICHARDSON ETAL 3,195,955

SEAT BACK STRUCTURE Filed Aug. 5, 19

Raymond L. M: Quit)! United States Patent This invention relates to new and useful improvements in seat back structures, and has particular reference to back structures used in upholstered furniture.

A principal object of the present invention is the provision of a novel backing or decking for the padding layers or pillows of a cushioned chair back which provides a resilient or springy base for the pillow, thereby contributing to greater comfort, and which also in and of itself provides adequate support for the pillow to prevent the padding from working between the individual wires of which the decking is formed. In most springsupported upholstery, it is necessary to interpose a layer of fabric of one sort or another, usually called an insulator pad, between the springs and the padding layers in order to provide adequate support for the padding. The present structure utilizes such a fabric, but it is of such a nature, and is so suspended, that it serves both as a padding support, and also as a spring base.

Another object is the provision of a back structure of the character described having a novel structure permitting localized rather than general deflection when a load is applied thereto. That is, if a person presses one portion of his back, such as his hips or his shoulders, against the cushion with reater force than the other portions of his back, the position of the cushion against which he is pressing most forcibly will be free to yield freely with little or no yielding of other portions of the cushion. The cushion thus contours itself to the back of the user, and thus is conducive to greater comfort and less fatigue to the user.

Other objects are great simplicity and economy of structure in accomplishing functions which heretofore have required relatively complicated and expensive structures, efficiency and dependability of operation, and ease and economy of installation and construction.

With these objects in view, as well as other objects which will appear in the course of the specification, reference will be had to the accompanying drawing, wherein:

PEG. 1 is a front clevational view of a seat back structure embodying the present invention, with the padding layers omitted,

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on line llll of FIG. 1, with the padding layers included,

HQ. 3 is an enlarged, fragmentary sectional View taken on line Ill-Ill of FIG. 1,

2G. 4 is an enlarged, fragmentary sectional View taken on line IV-IV of MG. 1, and

PEG. 5 is an enlarged, fragmentary sectional view taken on line V--V of FIG. 1.

Like reference numerals apply to similar parts throughout the several views, and the numeral 2 applies generally to the back frame of a furniture seat, said back frame being formed of wood or other suitable material and consisting of a pair of vertically extending side rails 4 rigidly connected at their upper ends by a horizontal cross bar 6 and adjacent their lower ends by a horizontal cross bar 8. The forward edges of side rails may, as shown, be shaped generally to the desired vertical contour of the back. The back frame may be aflixed at its lower end to a seat frame 1%, not pertinent to the present invention and shown only fragmentarily, including horizontal side rails 12 and a back rail 14.

The spring decking fabric is indicated generally at 16, and comprises a series of parallel, spaced apart and horizontally extending spring wires 18. Each of said wires is tightly looped or knotted at each end around a side cord Zll which is formed of twisted paper or other soft, indentable material, and which has a core consisting of a spring wire 22 (see FIGS. 3 and 5) which is of substantially greater diameter and stiffness than wires 18. Forming the side cord of paper or the like tends to prevent wearing contact of wires 22 with the padding layers which are eventually applied thereover as will presently be described, but most importantly they are indented by wires 18 as said wires are wrapped tliereabout, and this serves to maintain said wires in properly spaced relation along the side cords. Intermediate cords 24, also formed of paper or the like, extend parallel to side cords 2%, each of said intermediate cords being pierced by each of wires 18 at its point of intersection therewith, as best shown in FIG. 4. Said intermediate cords serve primarily to maintain proper spacing of wires 18 throughout their lengths, and the number and spacing of said cords Will depend primarily on the width of the seat back to be fitted.

The spring deckin fabric 16 extends over the back frame 2', the spacing between side cords 20 being somewhat less than the spacing between side rails 4 of said frame, so that each side cord is spaced somewhat inwardly from the adjacent side rail. Each side cord 2% is attached to the adjacent side rail by a series of spaced apart tension springs 25. Said springs are helical, and each spring is hooked at its in er end around the associated side cord as indicated at 23 (see FIG. 5), and is hooked at its outer end around a nail 3t) driven into the forward edge of the associated side rail 4, whereby to support fabric 16 resiliently.

FIG. 2 shows the padding or pillow 31 overlying the fabric 16. Said padding ordinarily has the surface thereof adjacent fabric 16 covered with a protective textile fabric 32, and its outer or exposed surface covered with a protective and decorative fabric, leather or the like as indicated at The fabric layers 32 and 34 are drawn rearwardly around the edges of the padding and secured to side rails 4, top cross bar 6 and bottom cross bar 8 in any suitable manner, such as by tacks 36.

It will be seen that decking fabric 16, supported by springs 24, provides a resiliently ieldable spring deck for the padding 311, which of course is conducive to greater comfort for the user than would be obtained if the padding were supported, for example, by the common jute webbing strips or the like. This yieldability is provided in part by the resiliency of wires l8 themselves, but principaliy by the springs The stiiiening of side cords 29 by their relatively stiff and heavy cores wires 22 provides a sufficiently solid and stable anchor for the inner ends of springs 24 that the fabric 16 will maintain its general contour over long periods of use and will not be distorted or pulled out of shape by said springs. The number and spacing of springs 2 4 may of course be varied as necessary or desired, alt tough the spacing shown in PEG. 1 has bee found entirely satisfactory in a standard upholstered chair back after extensive and exhaustive testing.

As fabric 15 is denected rearwardly by a load applied to the cushion, the side cords are drawn toward each other, as permitted by flexing of the core wires 22 in said side cords and the extension of springs 2 This deflection Will of course be greatest wnere the load is greatest. For

example, if a particular user tends to slouch in the chair so that his shoulders press heavily against the back, while his hips are positioned so far forward that they press against the back lightly if at all, the upper portion of fabric 16 will be relatively greatly deflected in a rearward direction, while the lower portion will be deflected only slightly if at all, and side cords 26 will assume a curved or 3 sinuous shape. Thus the structure shown permits the de flection of fabric 16 to be localized? to a very large extent in the vertical zone of greatest load, leaving all other zones undefiected or only slightly deflected. -This permits the back to assume the shape of the users back regardless of the variations of posture he may assume. This may be termed a contouring effect, and is conducive to greater comfort and less fatigue to the user since his back is thereby more uniformly supported over its entire area.

I The localized deflection and its resultant contouring elfect provided by the present structure is of course not new in and of. itself, existing in many presently available backs including a multiplicity'of independently supported and individually deflectable spring units distributed uniformly over the area of the back. -However, the provision these effects in the extremely economical, easily and cheaply installed structure shown, by means'of a simple fabric stretched over substantially the entire area of the back and secured only at its edges, is indeed believed to be such 'as heavy canvas, so that verticallyspaced portions thereof were notfree. to shift horizontally with respect to each other, the localization of deflection would'be greatly lost, and loading one portion thereof would cause deflection in'over a much greater vertical span thereof.

Also, wires-18 are spaced sufficiently closely together that they provide adequate support to prevent padding 31 This improves the from Working rearwardly therebetween. in-nearly all back structures, including springs, a wire-reinforced fabric, sometimes similar to fabric 16, must be laid overthe springs to prevent the padding from working into the What we claim as new and desire to protect by Letter Patent is: V

1. A seat back structure comprising:

(a) a back frame including a pair of generally, parallel,

vertically extending side rails, r

(b) a plurality of elongated tension springs attached to each of said side rails in vertically spaced relation therealong, and extending horizontally inwardly therefrom,

(c) a pair of vertically extending elongated resilient I side strands attached respectively t'othe inner ends of each of the said tension springs of one of said side rails and (d) a series of horizontally extending elongated resilient cross strands extending in parallel relation between said side strands and eachaffixed at its opposite ends to said side strands, said cross strands defining a deck over which padding may be applied. 1 r

t 2. A. spring decking structure for use in furniture backs comprising: 1 t

. (a) a pair of generally parallel resilient side wires,

(b) aplurality of generally-parallel, spaced apart resilient cross wires extending between and amxed at their opposite ends to said side wires, and

(c) means for supporting-the structure formed by said side wires and cross wires in a furniture back frame with said side wires extending vertically and said cross wires extending horizontally, whereby said side wires are urged resiliently apart in a direction parallel to and in the plane of said cross wires. i 1

' 3. A spring decking structure as recited 'in claim 2 wherein said supporting means comprises a series of elongated, resiliently extensible members each secured at one end to one of said side wires and extending outwardly therefrom in the plane of the structure formed by said side and cross wires for attachment at its outer end to said furniture back frame, the space between the points of connection ofsuccessive resiliently extensible members to each ofsaid side wires encompassing the points of connection of several of said cross wires to said side wire, and wherein each of said side. wires is'relatively stiff as compared to any one of said crosswires, whereby load stress applied to severalof said cross wires is'transferred by said side wires to one 'of said resiliently extensible members. Y 7

References Cited by theExaminer- UNITEDSTATES I ATENTS FRANK B: SHERRY, Primary Examiner. 

1. A SEAT BACK STRUCTURE COMPRISING; (A) A BACK FRAME INCLUDING A PAIR OF GENERALLY PARALLEL, VERTICALLY EXTENDING SIDE RAILS, (B) A PLURALITY OF ELONGATED TENSION SPRINGS ATTACHED TO EACH OF SAID SIDE RAILS IN VERTICALLY SPACED RELATION THEREALONG, AND EXTENDING HORIZONTALLY INWARDLY THEREFROM, (C) A PAIR OF VERTICALLY EXTENDING ELONGATGED RESILIENT SIDE STRANDS ATTACHED RESPECTIVELY TO THE INNER ENDS FO EACH OF THE SAID TENSION SPRINGS OF ONE OF SAID SIDE RAILS AND (D) A SERIES OF HORIZONTALLY EXTENDING ELONGATED RESILIENT CROSS STRANDS EXTENDING IN PARALLEL RELATION BETWEEN SAID SIDE STRANDS AND EACH AFFIXED AT ITS OPPOSITE ENDS TO SAID SIDE STRANDS, SAID CROSS STRANDS DEFINING A DECK OVER WHICH PADDING MAY BE APPLIED. 